Author: Robert Rose

Robert Rose is the Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of The Content Advisory - the education and advisory group of The Content Marketing Institute. As a strategist, Robert has worked with more than 500 companies including global brands such as Capital One, Dell, Ernst & Young, Hewlett Packard, and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Robert is the author of three books. His latest, Killing Marketing, with co-author Joe Pulizzi has just been released. His last book, Experiences: The 7th Era of Marketing, was called a “treatise, and a call to arms for marketers to lead business innovation in the 21st century.” You can hear Robert on his weekly podcast with co-host Joe Pulizzi, "This Old Marketing”. Robert is also an early-stage investor and advisor to a number of technology startups, serving on the advisory boards for a number of companies, such as Akoonu, DivvyHQ and Tint. Follow him on Twitter @Robert_Rose.

When I say the words “marketing data” what’s the first thing that comes to mind? If you’re like most marketers – it’s probably math, numbers, analytics; basically the statistical information that provides us insight into becoming more effective. Yuk. It’s like medicine – hard to swallow but we know we need to take it to get better.

As we begin our exploration and journey toward intelligent content, we wanted to introduce CMI’s philosophy on intelligent content and invite you to come along on the journey.

If you haven’t seen the movie (and play), The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe written by Jane Wagner and starring Lily Tomlin, do yourself a favor and find it. Near its end, there’s a scene where Trudy, a homeless person and guide to aliens (yeah, just go with it), is relaying her experience of taking the aliens to a play. After it’s finished the aliens have goose bumps; they completely loved the experience. But it wasn’t the play that gave them the goose bumps, it was the audience. See, Trudy forgot to tell the aliens to watch the stage.

“…to see a group of strangers sitting together in the dark, laughing, and crying about the same things… that just knocked ’em out. They said, ‘Trudy, the play was soup … the audience … art!”

As practitioners of content – don’t we all hope to create that kind of art?Continue Reading

Exactly one year ago, we were just coming off a great Content Marketing World – and I was steeling myself for a family-filled Thanksgiving. As I was talking with Joe Pulizzi during our weekly phone chat – which we regularly ended by gossiping, ranting, and raving about what was happening in the industry – he asked me a seemingly innocuous question: “Should we do a podcast?”

“I think that’s a great idea,” I said – having absolutely no idea what I was signing up for. (Note: This is how I’ve adroitly managed my career thus far: Say “yes” to anything that sounds remotely interesting and figure out how to do it later.)

I’m beginning to believe that 2014 may be the pivotal point where product companies actually start evolving into media brands. The Lego Movie, which has to date earned more than $500 million worldwide, is also very likely to be the first movie produced and sponsored by a product company to win an Academy Award. Make no mistake, for content marketing, This. Is. Big.

In 1999, the world-renowned marketing professor Philip Kotler published Kotler on Marketing. In it he discussed the latter 1990s — the time span that would fuel most of the thinking for the book — as a time of tumultuous change. But he knew that this was merely the beginning.

Professor Kotler concluded the book with a section called “Transformational Marketing,” in which he discussed how the field would change with the “new age of electronic marketing.” In the coming decade, Kotler wrote, “marketing will be re-engineered from A to Z. Marketing will need to rethink fundamentally the processes by which they identify, communicate, and deliver customer value.”

There’s only one problem: Fifteen years have passed, and this vital transformation hasn’t happened yet.Continue Reading

We are all aware that the process of engaging consumers has changed — so much so that the cliché of starting a blog post or conference presentation with a series of “did you know the world is changing?” statistics has reached astounding proportions.

Nevertheless, the fact of the matter is that content marketing — and how brands use it to interact with buyers at all stages of their engagement journey — is fundamentally reshaping the way businesses create their go-to-market strategies. This impact is both good and bad. As Joe and I have discussed frequently on our podcast, there are strategies and then there are “random acts of content.” Either of those activities will affect the business — it’s just a matter of how. Continue Reading

As content marketing becomes an increasingly important means of propelling our businesses forward, I’m finding that many marketers are still struggling with the operational issues associated with the discipline. In almost every meeting I attend these days, I’ve come to find that a few antiquated ideas about content are still ringing true:

Content marketing is still considered to be separate from “real marketing.”

Marketing and measurement are still solely thought of as ways to increase transactions, rather than as mechanisms for creating deeper relationships with consumers.

Businesses still view content as an attribute of marketing, rather than as a distinct discipline that offers value in and of itself. Continue Reading

On a book tour for “Without Their Permission,” Alexis Ohanian (co-founder of reddit) shared how his “blueprint for aspiring entrepreneurs” relates to marketers and advertisers. His motto and mandate: “Make things people want.”Continue Reading